What are the advantages of owning your own business?
Some fear it. Some have no choice but to do their own thing. Though, if you are just curious or really interested in starting or buying a business, what are the pros?
1. Financial Reward
One of the most common draws to entrepreneurship and becoming a business owner is simply the money. The promise of being able to earn and keep a lot more.
It doesn’t always work out this way, but certainly being the owner suggests you have uncapped income and wealth potential. Just make sure you choose a really big market. You can always start a second and third business after this too.
2. Taxes
One of the top reasons for owning your own business is the tax breaks. Companies like Amazon get billions of dollars in tax breaks. With a good accounting firm, you’ll probably find that you can earn many times more than working at a salaried job, but pay even fewer taxes than you used to.
This is one of the big distinctions between the uber-successful and wealthy. After all, it’s not how much you make, it is how much you get to keep after the tax man’s handout.
Just as you should be consulting fundraising and M&A advisors like Alejandro Cremades in advance, you should also be consulting with accountants and tax pros to optimize how you are setting up your business to minimize tax liabilities.
3. Lifestyle Freedom
Aside from the money, the other most common reason for being a business owner is lifestyle freedom. Most people are tired and burned out from working in jobs they are bored of and for bosses. Or, in systems that make them cringe at the thought of getting out of bed each morning.
Being your own boss means you get to set the rules. You can build your business model around the boundaries you choose to set for the life you want and your personal priorities.
You get to choose when you clock in and out, and what days you work. There can be a lot of temptation to overdo it and work more than you ever have. Yet, if you set firm guardrails, you can have the lifestyle you want.
If you want to be sure you are home in time for dinner with your family every night, you can do that. If you want to be at all of your kids’ sporting events, you can do that. If you want to be able to surf for an hour twice a day, you can. You can give yourself a two week paid vacation, work from home or live on a farm, miles from the city, or work best when only putting in four days a week, that can all be in your control. Best of all you get to live doing something you are passionate about, every day.
Just be sure you are exercising these abilities.
4. Decision Making
Yes, you finally get to make most of the decisions. You get to decide when you want to give up some of that power, how much, and who to.
You get to decide who to hire, fire, and listen to. You get to erase all the foolish blunders of your old boss and do things better. You can solve the pain and provide better solutions than all the other competitors in the marketplace.
5. Challenges
Of the hyper-successful startup founders I’ve interviewed on the Dealmakers Show, many were drawn to entrepreneurship for the challenges. They are the type of people that thrive on constant challenges and starve without them.
Every day can be stimulating with new challenges to tackle and overcome as a business owner. If that’s something you love, you may wonder why anyone has ever worked for someone else. Just remember you are signing up for this too.
Even in the worst-case scenario that this business opportunity doesn’t go as expected, you will learn a lot.
6. Personal Fulfillment
Money, unlimited vacation time, tax breaks, and figuring out the Rubix cube of winning in business is all great. What trumps all of these is personal fulfillment.
This is the ability to live and strive to your full potential, and even dramatically heighten that potential as you go.
No first-time entrepreneurs knew how to do it all. Most didn’t know half of what they’d be dealing with on a daily basis. They evolved as the company did.
You can have all the wealth and free time in the world and pay zero taxes, but if you don’t feel fulfilled in what you are doing, then what is it all for?
7. Helping Others
For many of the most successful repeat entrepreneurs, the greatest personal fulfillment comes from what they are able to do for their teams. They are able to give others the chance to do meaningful work, and in a great exit, to become millionaires and launch their own businesses.
On the way, you also get to help your customers and deliver great returns to the funds investing in your company, and the individuals who have invested in them.
8. Control Your Own Destiny
Instead of others determining your contribution to the world, your income, your potential, and how you live, being able to control your own destiny is one of the most powerful advantages of owning your own business.
In order to have a proper roadmap, you will need a business plan. Check out the video below and you will be able to learn how to write a business plan.
